Denia to Valencia and Back Again

The afternoon of June 12th we pulled up the anchor in beautiful El Rinconet Bay and made the one hour journey to Denia. Notice the word sail was not used. Once again we were motoring. Our purpose in stopping at Marina de Denia was to scout the area out as a potential spot for meeting the Matthews Clan who were due to arrive on the 19^th. We had chosen Denia as the rendezvous point because the location provided the shortest sail to the Balearic Islands. After checking out the facilities and surrounding area, which we deemed excellent, it was off to Valencia the next morning. It seemed that someone on board was anxious to get to the home of the last Americas Cup Campaign. Apparently Craig thought there may still be an open spot for a new crew member during the next America's Cup challenge.

Valencia is approximately 40 miles north of Denia so it was a pleasant day sail and the sailing gods were smiling on Craig because there were two Swedish America's Cup boats sparing with each other as we approached the harbor. Then they came right by our boat when they were towed back to the compound in the inner harbor. Needless to say Craig was in a swoon and Jan had to manage all of the boat functions while he imagined how he could have made the difference if they would only have taken a 57 year old grinder during the last challenge! You would have thought that would be enough, but Jan had to dodge a trimaran that was preparing for an around the world speed challenge as we were coming in.
As has been our practice this season, we had a successful docking and we enjoyed our cold Spanish beers before embarking on Craig's quest to be the oldest America's cup grinder in history.

Craig’s quest turned out to be a failure as the America’s Cup compound was almost completely deserted. At this point when or where the next Challenge will occur is being held up by the various lawsuits that have been filed over the current rules and regulations. Oh well, the sights of Valencia would have to be enough and they were. The old city of Valencia is quite beautiful with several museums,


cathedrals, historic buildings and an awesome market.
We even happened upon some crazy festival where people were throwing buckets of water from balconies on to the crowd below! The marina is located next to the main beaches which are wide with white sand, beautiful walkways and of course many, many restaurants.
Before turning the boat around and heading back to Denia we made sure we stocked up on the wonderful Valencia oranges and had our fill of Piaella which originated in Valencia. We also thoroughly checked out the marina for Sadie and Dennis who were looking for a place to keep GRACEFUL while they make a trip back to Guernsey later in the summer. That being taken care of it was time to backtrack – friends were on their way!